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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Campaign to preserve London's 'Oliver Twist' workhouse

Campaigners are celebrating a "major milestone" in the fight to save a London workhouse thought to have inspired the work of Charles Dickens. The Cleveland Street Workhouse Group (CSWG) wants the 18th Century building in Fitzrovia - earmarked for demolition - to be given listed status. It claims a positive English Heritage report acknowledges its "historical and architectural" contribution to London. A government statement said a decision "will be taken in due course". According to campaigners the former Strand Union Workhouse was built in 1775 and is the best preserved Georgian-era workhouse in central London. Dickens is understood to have lived a few doors away from the building for nearly five years, in his formative years